Aquarium Cleaning

AQUARIUM CLEANING

For cleaning your aquarium (freshwater or saltwater) a Gravel Vacuum attached to a siphon or recirculating filter works best. If you have a planted aquarium, I recommend #00 sand (3-5 cm) mixed with laterite or conditioned soil with #3 gravel (2-3 cm) on top. You should NOT vacuum the sand, as this will tend to be sucked all the way thru the vacuum, and this will also disturb the natural aerobic and anaerobic filtration going on in the substrate being performed by the bacteria and plant roots.
A relatively new device that performs both water removal and recirculation thru a micron filter cartridge that is easily cleaned is the Aquarium Cleaning Machine. This new device uses a protected mag drive motor to remove or recirculate your water thru a filter (or both). For saltwater changes, this device is a money saver and fish saver. You can change 20% of your water, then keep re-filtering it thru the micron cartridge using the gravel vacuum do pick up debris. This saves having to use more salt for larger water changes and keeps a healthier aquarium with lower nitrates, as much of the debris is removed from your system before it can go thru the nitrogen cycle (adding to the Nitrate levels).

A similar device is the
Eheim Sludge Remover Vacuum. This is a more simple and easy to use device than the cleaning machine, not to mention less expensive.
However it also is not as effective, especially for larger aquariums (over 75 gallons). The Sludge Remover also is only for vacuuming out larger sludge, not true micron filtration and water changes.

For more information and methods for aquarium cleaning, please see this more complete article article:
AQUARIUM CLEANING; Reasons and methods for water changes

Other Useful Products
For replacement UV Bulbs for your Aquarium UV Sterilizer